This character guide explores the intertwined cast of Lisa Wingate’s The Book of Lost Friends, a novel that moves between Reconstruction-era Louisiana and Texas and a late-1980s classroom in Augustine, Louisiana. Across these eras, characters are bound by bloodlines, secrets, and an enduring quest to reclaim family and identity, with old wounds rippling forward into new lives.
Main Characters
Hannie Gossett
Hannie anchors the 1875 timeline as an eighteen-year-old formerly enslaved sharecropper whose life is defined by the brutal theft of her family by the plantation mistress’s nephew, Jeptha “Jep” Loach. Fiercely resilient and guided by the memory of her mother, Mittie, she clings to hope—embodied in the three blue beads she carries—and turns survival into purpose. When she’s pulled into a perilous journey with her former mistress Lavinia and her half-cousin Juneau Jane, she seizes the chance to search for her scattered kin and confront the men who profited from their devastation. Through grit, courage, and emerging leadership, she transforms from a haunted daughter into a seeker who uses the “Lost Friends” notices to help others find what was stolen from them.
Benedetta "Benny" Silva
Benny leads the 1987 narrative as a first-year English teacher in Augustine, Louisiana, struggling to connect with students too often written off by their town and their school. Idealistic but out of her depth, she turns to local history—especially the secrets of Goswood Grove—to craft lessons that matter, and in doing so bridges the gap between past and present. Her growing bond with student LaJuna Carter and her wary friendship with Nathan Gossett draw her into the Gossett legacy and the story of Hannie’s search. Over time, she reshapes her classroom into a space where stories unlock belonging, transforming herself from an overwhelmed outsider into a purposeful community builder.
Juneau Jane LaPlanche
Juneau Jane is William Gossett’s freeborn Creole daughter, educated and proud, suddenly vulnerable when her father vanishes and her inheritance is threatened. Literate and quick-witted, she finds power in reading and recording—especially through the “Lost Friends” columns—and her resourcefulness keeps the traveling trio alive, even when she must disguise herself as a boy. Initially driven by self-preservation and a fierce loyalty to her father’s memory, she is forced into an uneasy partnership with Hannie and a bitter rivalry with her white half-sister, Lavinia. On the road, her guarded heart opens toward empathy and shared purpose as she recognizes her kinship with Hannie and the cost of the Gossett family’s sins.
Lavinia Gossett
Lavinia serves as the 1875 timeline’s primary antagonist: pampered, entitled, and determined to secure the Gossett inheritance at any cost. Scheming and vain, she manipulates those around her—especially Hannie, her former handmaiden, and Juneau Jane, her rival half-sister—into a Texas-bound mission built on lies. Her cruelty, shaped by her mother’s bitter resentments, draws the trio into danger that exposes the rot beneath her privilege. As her plots recoil upon her, Lavinia’s arc darkens to tragedy, revealing the hollowness of inherited power and the human wreckage it leaves behind.
Supporting Characters
Jeptha "Jep" Loach
Jep is the predatory nephew of the plantation’s “Old Missus,” whose theft and sale of Hannie’s family catalyze her lifelong search. He embodies the greed and dehumanization of slavery’s afterlife, a malignant force whose actions haunt every mile of Hannie’s journey.
Mittie Gossett
Mittie is Hannie’s mother and moral compass, torn from her child and sold west to Texas. Though absent in body, she endures in memory, story, and the tradition of the blue beads, fueling Hannie’s hope and resolve to stitch a broken family back together.
William Gossett (Old Mister)
William is the patriarch of Goswood Grove, a complicated figure who fathers children with both his white wife and his Creole mistress. His disappearance in Texas sets the 1875 plot in motion and pits Lavinia and Juneau Jane against one another, while his choices expose the entangled hierarchies of blood, property, and power.
Maude Loach-Gossett (Old Missus)
Maude is the plantation’s hard, vindictive matriarch, channeling fury over her husband’s infidelity into cruelty toward the enslaved—especially Hannie. She stands as the face of an unreconstructed Southern order, teaching Lavinia the language of spite and entitlement.
Ol' Tati
Ol’ Tati is an elderly freedwoman who shelters and mothers Hannie and other orphaned children after the war. Her steadiness, wisdom, and affection give Hannie a home when home has been stolen.
Elam Salter
Elam—first glimpsed under a cloud of suspicion—emerges as a Deputy U.S. Marshal and former freedom seeker whose integrity and courage help safeguard the three young travelers. His quiet strength and shared history with bondage make him both protector and future partner in Hannie’s life and mission.
Nathan Gossett
Nathan is the Gossett heir in name only, a solitary shrimper wary of his family’s past and the decaying estate that symbolizes it. Drawn by Benny’s curiosity and conviction, he is nudged toward reckoning with legacy, complicity, and the possibility of repair.
LaJuna Carter
LaJuna is Benny’s guarded, whip-smart student and a direct descendant of Hannie. Fiercely protective of her family and their stories, she becomes the conduit between classroom lessons and lived history, pushing Benny to see Augustine as it is, not as she imagines it.
Granny T
Granny T presides over the Carter family and the beloved Cluck and Oink restaurant, serving history with every plate. A living archive of Augustine, she guides Benny with context, caution, and care.
Aunt Sarge (Donna Alston)
Aunt Sarge is LaJuna’s hard-edged, big-hearted aunt, an Army veteran and handywoman who takes no nonsense. She shields her family and, in time, stands beside Benny as a pragmatic ally.
Lil' Ray Rust
Lil’ Ray begins as the hungry disruptor in Benny’s classroom, emblem of a system that has given up on boys like him. Through the “Tales from the Underground” project, he discovers the pull of ancestry and reveals unexpected curiosity, humor, and heart.
Minor Characters
- Lyle Gossett: Lavinia’s reckless brother, a source of scandal and unrest within the Gossett household.
- Judge Gossett: Nathan’s grandfather, whose shadowy legacy lingers over the estate and the town.
- Aunt Dicey: A descendant of Hannie who helps carry the family’s story into the modern day.
- William Gossett’s Creole mistress: Juneau Jane’s mother, a free woman of color whose relationship with William exposes the era’s fraught lines of race, status, and inheritance.
Character Relationships & Dynamics
The 1875 journey binds Hannie, Juneau Jane, and Lavinia into a tense, involuntary sisterhood: Hannie is the moral center driven by memory and promise, Juneau Jane the literate strategist guarding her claim, and Lavinia the privileged spoiler whose lies endanger them all. Their road is shadowed by Jep’s predations and steadied by Elam’s intervention, with Ol’ Tati’s love as Hannie’s compass. Across this crucible, Hannie and Juneau Jane move from suspicion to kinship, while Lavinia’s envy curdles into self-destruction.
In 1987, Benny steps into Augustine as an outsider and slowly earns trust through listening—especially to LaJuna, who bridges classroom and community. Nathan’s wary attachment to his family’s past complicates his growing connection to Benny, while Granny T and Aunt Sarge anchor the Carter family’s authority and protection. Students like Lil’ Ray reveal how personal history can kindle learning when dignity is restored.
Generational ties knit the timelines together. Mittie—Hannie’s mother—is the unacknowledged half-sister of William Gossett, making Hannie and Juneau Jane half-cousins whose fates should have been divided but are, in the end, entwined. Hannie’s later marriage to Elam establishes a lineage that includes Granny T, Aunt Dicey, and LaJuna, while Nathan inherits the Gossett name and the burden of reckoning. These intertwined families illustrate how legacies of bondage and privilege echo forward—and how story, courage, and community can answer them.